Review of A Perfect Getaway (2009) by Bryan N — 04 Jan 2012

PROS: Timothy Olyphant is a sight to see in this movie. His performance is by far the best thing about this film. He plays slick, cool, dangerous, a little bit on the crazy side soo well, easily topping anything he has done prior. Steve Zahn too does a very good job in his first major leading role as a serious actor, he sometime acts a little too much but it was a great performance as well. The cinematography is really beautiful, capturing the lush landscape of Hawaii very well. It was very reminiscent of Danny Boyle's The Beach staring Leonardo DiCaprio, everything felt organic and rich as it came up on screen and very little made it feel like a set of a Hollywood movie. The screenplay and direction was very well done as well. David Twohy writes and directs this movie with a lot of confidence and it completely felt like what he knew what and what not to let the audience in on. The film and it's characters almost feel self aware but never take that leap into breaking the 4th wall and for me that was a real breath of fresh air in a genre where everything is held in such tension. The movie felt loose and relaxed, an interesting and effective take on a thriller in Hawaii.

CONS: Although I did compliment the film for it's laid back approach to the thriller genre, at times the film was almost too laid back and that sometimes effected the plot. The approach allowed audience members to assemble pieces to the mystery very early on which kind of takes away from the thrill at the end. I for one pieced the movie all together before the first half was done which is a shame because the twist doesn't pack the same punch when most people obviously know what it is. The finale was a bit lackluster, it does has a ton of great moments but for some reason it felt hollow, only one character's motive's end up being fulfilled and it was the least interesting one out of everyone.